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Thesis-2008-Calnan.pdf (5.72 MB)

Growth and characterisation of sputtered transparent conducting oxides targeting improved solar cell efficiency

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posted on 2018-11-15, 12:28 authored by Sonya Calnan
Transparent conducting oxides (TCO) are used to improve lateral current collection in thin film solar cells while allowing light into the absorber layers. Sputtering, an industrially mature coating technology, is potentially useful for low cost production of high quality TCO films. ZnO:Al films were grown by reactive MF (mid frequency) dual cathode magnetron sputtering from Zn:Al targets on glass with dynamic deposition rates up to 115 nm.m.minˉ¹ compared to 6 nm.m.minˉ¹ by RF sputtering from a single ceramic target. Adjusting the distribution of the oxygen influx improved the uniformity of the thickness and resistivity of ZnO:Al films grown on substrates measuring 30 cm × 30 cm. The ZnO:Al films were texture-etched for light trapping in micro-crystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) solar cells. Optimally textured ZnO:Al films were used as front contacts in 1 cm² single junction μc-Si:H solar cells yielding an initial efficiency of 8.4 % which is comparable to cells on textured RF sputtered ZnO:Al films, despite the much higher deposition rate. [Continues.]

Funding

Engineering and Physical Science Research Council.

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Publisher

© Sonya Calnan

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2008

Notes

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Loughborough University.

Language

  • en

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    Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering Theses

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